by Eva Brandt
It felt stupid to give up so quickly, but Mathias had a point. We weren’t making any progress, and my wolf was starting to pace at the back of my mind, anxious and frustrated. “Maybe we could spar a little. I’m not doing much better than Dahud.”
Thrand narrowed his eyes at me. “Ah,” he said. It was a single syllable, but I knew he’d understood what I meant. I didn’t often mention my beast and my potential loss of control, but when I did, it was always a good idea to take it seriously. “All right. Let’s go. We don’t want this to escalate too. We have enough problems on our hands already.”
Mathias didn’t ask any questions, although I could tell he wanted to. Then again, he didn’t ask a lot of questions in general. Half the time, he seemed to just know things. He might claim he didn’t have magic, but up to a point, he did. The visions he’d mentioned reminded me of my occasional guesses. I wondered if it was a form of seiðr and made a mental note to mention it to Dahud. It might be important.
For the moment, the wolf was too restless for me to focus on anything except lashing out at something. Hopefully, the sparring session would clear my head and help me be better prepared for later.
The royal palace of Kerys had a sparring ground, but we didn’t go there. It was too dangerous, as someone might notice a potential transformation. Instead, we left the palace and headed out onto the beach, searching for an area that suited our needs.
We were in luck. Most of the populace was in the city and the weather was unfriendly. It was pretty easy to find a secluded spot where we could spar away from any prying eyes.
I removed my shirt and boots, knowing that if I didn’t, they’d just get ruined. Thrand did the same. “Keep your distance, Mathias,” he told our companion. “This might get dangerous otherwise.”
Mathias nodded and sat on a nearby rock. He seemed fascinated by our whole exchange. I almost wished I could spar with him, since we’d never gotten the chance during the competition.
Unfortunately, that would be a very bad idea. When I was like this, my blood lust wasn’t as powerful as during battle, and most of the time, I could still recognize the people around me. Still, there was always a chance that I’d lose my grip on sanity. The only way around it was to spar with someone my wolf recognized as belonging to me—with Thrand.
As a wolf and as a man, I’d rather cut a limb off than hurt him. No matter what mental state I was in, I always knew him. Even when I didn’t remember his name or our relationship, even when my mind was blurred by the consciousness of the animal, I sensed he was important to me. Mathias would not be so lucky and I could hurt him if I wasn’t careful.
“Make sure no one shows up to see us, but don’t interfere,” I told him. “The beast won’t accept you.”
“I know,” Mathias said calmly. Just as I’d thought, he’d guessed what was going on. The realization relieved me as it meant he’d stay out of my way if something went wrong.
Satisfied, I took a deep breath and allowed my humanity to fade, summoning my beast to the surface. My fingernails turned into claws and several of my teeth popped free of my gums, replaced by fangs. When I focused again, my senses were even sharper than before.
There was a man in front of me, a warrior who was challenging me. I knew him. He was my mate.
We’d been together since I’d been a pup, before I’d been able to break free of the mind of the human carrying me. He liked it when I bit him, when I marked him, when I made him mine. My human self occasionally had issues with that. I couldn’t understand why he held back.
Snarling, I lunged at my mate, ready to give him what he wanted. My human self might have said he’d come here to fight, but I had other, better ideas.
Our female wasn’t here with us, which was a problem. But when she was ready, once she had licked her wounds and allowed us to approach, I would meet with her too and show her she never needed to shy away from me again. In the meantime, my male mate needed my attention.
I tried to pounce on him, but he dashed out of the way at the last moment. He’d always been sneaky and much faster than humans should’ve been. But that was all right. A hunt was never fun unless the person I was hunting put up a fight. My mate wasn’t an exception, even if the prize waiting for me at the end wasn’t death, but something far more delicious.
“You’ll deny me what’s mine?” I asked him. “My prince, you should know better.”
“I do,” he replied without missing a beat. “I know you very well. Or have you forgotten?”
No, I hadn’t. I hadn’t forgotten his kisses, his heat, his passion, the tight heat of his body as it swallowed me whole. My human self had wanted to give him up because he’d thought our female would be a better mate, and maybe that was true. But she’d generously decided to share, and instead of separating us, she’d brought us closer.
Baring my fangs at him, I attacked again. I kept my claws away from his skin and sensitive flesh, not wanting to actually hurt him. Instead, I tackled him to the ground. He made a valiant attempt to escape, and when that failed, he kneed me in the groin. It was a low blow, but my mate had never been afraid of savagery. He’d been born with a beast inside too, one that recognized and accepted me.
I ignored the pain and grabbed his wrists, pinning him to the ground. He smirked up at me, unafraid. He wasn’t really trying to fight me. He’d seen where this was going too and he had no intention of stopping me.
What a wicked, tempting creature he was. He and our female were a good match for each other. They were just as enchanting, and I was more than happy to be their slave for eternity.
I crushed my mouth to his, needing to feel his taste once again. He kissed me back with just as much eagerness and desire.
I gripped his hip in a tight hold, narrowly managing to not dig my claws into his flesh. He arched against me, letting out a muffled moan that reminded me of the sounds he made when he was sucking my cock.
I might have been inclined to repeat the experience, but all of a sudden, my mate went rigid. He stopped kissing me and jerked beneath me, almost as if he was convulsing. I pulled away in alarm, my instincts screaming that something was very wrong.
After I let him go, my mate bent over and started to cough. His entire body heaved as he vomited blood.
It was so sudden and unexpected that the wolf was utterly paralyzed, not knowing how to react. My human mind took over, pushing the beast aside. Truth be told, I didn’t have a clue what to do either. I gently touched Thrand’s shoulder, trying to check up on his condition.
“Thrand?” I asked. “Thrand, what is it? Where are you hurt?” I had barely even hit him. We’d had tougher scrapes when we’d been children. I’d tackled him to the ground, yes, but that couldn’t have wounded him too seriously.
But the facts didn’t lie and Thrand was still shivering, convulsing, and vomiting blood.
Mathias dropped to his knees next to us, scanning Thrand with those keen eyes that saw too much. “He needs to see a healer right now,” he said without preamble.
I nodded, but I didn’t know how to grab him in a way that wouldn’t hurt him further. I’d already done enough damage today. What if I hurt him more?
“I didn’t… I don’t think I…”
Mathias pressed his lips together in a thin line. “It wasn’t you, Halvar. There’s magic at work here. I can feel it.” As he picked Thrand up, he pressed the pendant against my lover’s forehead. It was glowing, and I had the urge to shove it away from him. I wasn’t fast enough, which turned out to be for the best. The moment the stone made contact with him, Thrand stopped heaving and went limp in Mathias’s hold. His pallor wasn’t encouraging, but he wasn’t seizing any longer.
“Mathias?” I asked. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Right now, I only have guesses. But, Halvar, Thrandur was the one who broke Dahud’s curse. That kind of thing doesn’t come without a price.”
He was right and I berated myself for my blindness. I should�
�ve known that the kind of power Dahud wielded couldn’t have been tamed so easily. Lost and terrified, I followed Mathias as we headed back to the palace. I could still taste Thrand’s blood on my lips and it felt like an omen.
Plagued
Dahud
It was cowardly to run away from my problems. I knew that even as I left my husbands to fend for themselves and took refuge in my old rooms. But I suddenly had trouble being in their presence. I loved them, but at the same time, I was aware of how much I was asking of them. I’d deemed the curse broken, which was why I’d thought our marriage would be safe. What if that wasn’t true? What if I lost control of my powers again and, this time, I ended up hurting them?
Curling on my bed, I tried to think things through logically. Mathias’s aunt had promised she’d come to see what had happened. Until then, I needed to control my temper and make sure I used my magic as little as possible. I could do that. Of course I could. I didn’t rely on the mystical arts for every single thing, and it was only for a little while.
I still took a few minutes to clear my head and calm down. All these new emotions were clouding my mind, but I was better than this, damn it. Panicking wouldn’t help me. If I remembered well, in my haste to get away from my husbands, I hadn’t paid any heed to the people who might have seen me move through the palace at a supernatural speed. The citizens of Kerys might suspect I had magic, but they weren’t aware of my other skills. Displaying them so openly wasn’t smart.
I groaned and cursed under my breath. “I’m an idiot. The last thing we need right now is to have a servant start some kind of rumor that will eventually blow up in my face.”
Sliding out of my bed, I left my quarters and headed back the way I’d come. I didn’t get very far. A panicked guard intercepted me on the way to my new rooms. “Your Highness, thank the gods. It’s terrible!”
He’d approached me with almost no regard for formality, and that alone was enough to alarm me. “What’s terrible, man? Speak!” Had the dike collapsed? Was the hostile magic attacking the city again? Had Mathias’s aunt lied to us?
“It’s your husband,” the man explained. “He collapsed! He’s very ill.”
My mind went blank. For a few seconds, I simply couldn’t process what the guard was telling me. I’d expected anything but that. My husbands were all very strong, healthy men, and they’d been fine an hour before, when I’d last seen them.
“Who?” I somehow managed to ask, feeling numb.
“P-Prince Theuderic,” the guard stammered.
Thrandur. Why would Thrandur be sick? I didn’t know, but I wouldn’t find out while standing in the hallway like a statue.
Pivoting on my heel, I ran toward the healing wing. If the guard had been sent to inform me, Thrandur was undoubtedly there. I didn’t bother hiding my skills. I’d worry about who’d seen me—now and earlier—once I figured out what was wrong with Thrandur.
When I got to the healing wing, I found Halvar and Mathias waiting outside one of the sealed rooms, usually reserved for contagious patients. The last time the healers had placed someone there, I’d been five, although my mother had never told me what sickness they’d been trying to stop.
“What happened?” I asked without preamble. “What’s wrong with him?”
“We don’t know, Dahud, not for sure,” Mathias replied. “The only thing I can tell is that it’s dark magic of some kind.”
“We were out sparring and all of a sudden, he started convulsing and vomiting blood,” Halvar continued. “Mathias’s amulet seems to calm him, but as soon as we take it off, the magic comes back.”
That didn’t make any sense. If this was a magical disease, why had the healers used this room to check up on Thrandur?
“I’m going in,” I said. “I want answers and I’ll get them, no matter what.”
I was pretty confident my magic would protect me if there was an issue. And if it didn’t, I’d figure something out. I couldn’t focus on that now. I just needed to know, to rid myself of this terrible uncertainty.
As I entered the room, Halvar and Mathias followed me. A healer popped up in my path as soon as I stepped inside. His face was covered with a mask and sweat beaded his brow. “Your Highness, you can’t be in here.”
“Don’t presume to give me any commands.” I looked past his shoulder, at the bed where Thrandur was now lying motionless. “I have every right to be here. Tell me what is wrong with my husband.”
The healer swallowed audibly. “We can’t be certain right now, but… I’m afraid it is The Punishment. The Plague.”
My blood turned to ice at his reply. Kerys had never had cases of the plague before. The magic of the gods protected us. But we’d heard of it even here, since it was said to have done a lot of damage in the Eastern Lands.
As far as I knew, the plague had never reached Thrandur’s homeland. He couldn’t have caught it there. I hadn’t heard of any cases on the continent at all. Besides, if something like that had been brewing at King Sæmingr’s court, Thrandur and Halvar would’ve noticed before they’d left. These things never happened out of nowhere.
“You cannot be serious.”
“I’m afraid I am, Your Highness. I traveled to the Eastern territories extensively and I ran into one such case. It was identical to the symptoms your husband is displaying. Truthfully, it was most fascinating. The fast progression of the disease, coupled with the buboes that appear on—”
“Did you find a cure in your journey or only a description?” I cut him off. “Why did he get sick in the first place?”
The healer deflated, as if he’d just remembered where he was. “I know of no possible cure or of its causes. In the village where I traveled, the ill were left to reap the consequences of their actions.”
I hadn’t thought anything could anger me more than the revelation that my parents had destroyed my soulmate, but clearly, this was a day for surprises. I clenched my fists, magic swirling around me in outraged sparks. The floor beneath my feet cracked and the furniture started to shake. “Excuse me? Are you saying this illness is my husband’s fault?”
The healer stumbled away from me so quickly he tripped and fell back on his ass. “No! Of course not. I mean… It’s not unheard for gods to bring such misfortune onto evil-doers, but that doesn’t mean your husband did anything wrong.”
“What does it mean, then?” I asked with a sharp, biting smile. “For him, not for some hypothetical patient you abandoned to die while in your travels.”
The healer just stared at me in confusion and helplessness. Mathias let out a sigh. “Leave. I think it will be better if we handled this ourselves.”
“But Prince Mathias…” the man started to protest.
“You heard him!” I snarled. “Leave.”
Halvar didn’t wait for the healer to obey my command. He growled threateningly, grabbed the man’s arm and hauled him upright. Within seconds, he had dragged the healer toward the door and shoved him out of the room.
Once we were in private once again, the three of us went to Thrandur’s bedside. Now that we’d gotten closer, I could see what had determined the healer to place his diagnostic and I had to agree with him.
“The buboes are new,” Mathias said, scowling fiercely. “They must’ve appeared when the healer told us to leave. I shouldn’t have taken the pendant with me when we left him here.”
He was already retrieving the object in question and putting it around Thrandur’s neck. “I stand by my opinion. If it’s a form of the plague, it’s caused by dark magic.”
I nodded and reached for him, seeking out the hostile energy that was hurting Thrandur. My skills didn’t lie in this field, but I could at least find some answers. Between me and my mother, we’d be able to heal Thrandur. I was sure of it.
I didn’t even get the chance to touch Thrandur. I was mere inches away from him when a sharp jolt of energy coursed over me. I instinctively recoiled and pulled away, rubbing my hurt hand. “Dahud?” Halvar asked. “
What’s wrong?”
“I… I don’t know. The magic on Thrandur hurt me. It pushed me away.”
“Maybe the healer was right about this being contagious,” Mathias said, his voice thick with concern. “This could be dangerous.”
“I’m not worried about myself, Mathias,” I answered bitingly. “I’m not the one who’s sick here.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get sick.” Mathias let out a slow breath. “Listen, I don’t think this is a coincidence. Thrandur is the one who broke your curse. If my aunt is telling the truth, the spell she cast was very dark. Thrandur might have absorbed that magic when he gave you back the ability to feel. But if you get too close to him, it might affect you too.”
It made far too much sense. I tasted bile in my mouth as I realized Thrandur was ill because of me. Forcing back my guilt, I focused on the practicalities of the situation. “Will your amulet protect him?”
“It should,” Mathias replied. “It was made to fight off dark magic. I think my aunt must’ve known something would happen, although she didn’t realize it would be this serious.” He stole another look at the pendant, where it lay against Thrandur’s chest. “She made me promise to never take this off and I’ve tried to keep my word. But this is much more important.”
I agreed and considered myself lucky we had the pendant in the first place. “I’ll speak to my mother while we wait for your aunt. We’ll keep an eye on Thrandur and give him the best treatment we have. We might not be able to heal him, but we can fight the symptoms, at least temporarily.”
There were a lot of elixirs and potions that strengthened people and helped them fight all kinds of afflictions. We’d be able to find something for this magical plague too.
As I mused over what I could do to help my husband, Thrandur cracked his eyes open and groaned. I ached to touch him and check on his condition, but I kept my distance. Halvar went to him instead and took his hand. “It’s all right, Thrand,” he said. “You’re fine. You’re okay.”